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ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B

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    30 December 2008, Volume 40 Issue 12 Previous Issue    Next Issue

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    Object Location Judgments in Spatial Memory Based on Coordinating Egocentric and Allocentric References
    ZHOU Rong-Gang,ZHANG Kan
    2008, 40 (12):  1229-1239. 
    Abstract ( 1686 )  
    With visual spatial scene, previous absolute direction judgment (including cardinal direction judgments) studies based on coordinating egocentric and allocentric reference have identified the effect patterns of target position and heading. Also, a variety of ACT-R models have been developed to understand cognitive process of absolute direction judgments. The popular task scenario is asking participant to use a map to determine the absolute direction between two objects in a visual scene, which is presented as 3D or camera picture. In other field of spatial cognition, relative direction/location tasks (i.e., front/back) are used for the purpose of understanding how spatial layout of scene is represented in the mind. This study aimed to investigate how target position and mismatch between two references influence absolute direction judgments based on spatial memory. Based on Zhou et al’s study (2007), the three components of navigation (route specifying, heading identifying, and direction determining) were used to control information present orders in different experiments. The target scene was adapted from Mou (2002) spatial research.
    Three 8 × 8 within-subject experiments were conducted. The variables are target position (0o/up, 45o (R45o), 90o (R90o), 135o (R135o), 180o, 225o (R135o), 270o (R90o), and 315o/left-up (R45o)) and heading (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW). Participants were asked to remember one scene with regular layout of seven small objects. In another room, with one of the given headings, participants used “verbal report” to give the absolute direction (i.e., the N, NE) between two objects in the memory scene. The information of heading and the two objects were presented on a computer screen. Exp.1 contained all three navigation components. In Exp. 2, participants made the judgments based on heading information after remembering the route information (independent of direction judgments task). Exp. 3 used same tasks as Exp. 2 but the sequence was reversed. Accuracy and response time were collected by E-prime. A total of 60 college students participated in the study and completed three trials (64 problems per trial). Repeated measures statistical analysis was used.
    The main finding could be summarized as follows: (1) the North direction advantage effect was found for Exp. 1 and Exp. 2 and the pattern could be described as N < E /S / W < Non-canonical direction (< means shorter response time, and / means no significant difference), and the Canonical direction advantage effect (N = E / S / W < Non-canonical direction) was found for Exp. 3; (2) the response time was shortest at the 0o/up position (except for Exp. 2 where no significant difference was found between 0o and 180o/bottom position), and the advantage effect at 180o/bottom position was more evident for Exp. 1 and Exp. 3 (i.e., R180o < R45o, R90o and R135o) than for Exp. 2 (i.e., R180o < R135o); (3) the Canonical direction-R90o advantage effect which means the left/right position advantage effect is dependent of the canonical direction, was found for all experimental tasks. The results also showed that the impact of target position was greater than that of heading in all experiments.
    These findings indicate that conventional effect patterns not only exist in absolute direction judgment, but also apply to spatial memory topics. Compared with absolute direction task, in spatial memory task the effects of position and canonical direction -left/right position increased but the importance of heading lowered. Many strategies have been identified and corresponding ACT-R cognitive models were developed, but there are much difference between visual scene and memory scene. Thus future work should focus on applying and updating these models in spatial memory
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    The Effect of Reference Point of the Feedback-related ERPs
    XIANG Ling,WANG Bao-Xi,ZHANG Qing-Lin,YUAN Hong
    2008, 40 (12):  1240-1249. 
    Abstract ( 1206 )  
    Some researches have investigated the relativity in outcome evaluation, but it is unclear about what the reference point is and its brain mechanism when the participants evaluate the relative value and relative magnitude. Enlightened by “Prospect theory” of reference point effect, we speculate that the feedback-related ERPs may represent reference point effect. In order to explore the hypothesis, this research distinguished the relative information based on a reference point and the absolute information based on zero by using Bet-feedback money gamble task.
    Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were measured when 12 healthy college students did Bet-feedback money gamble task. We mainly analyzed ERPs elicited by the five feedbacks outcome following two bet conditions.
    The results showed a similar tendency in FRN and P300. The amplitude of the FRN elicited by the first feedback was largest, and the amplitude of the FRN elicited by the fifth feedback was smallest, and the amplitudes of the FRN elicited by the second, third and fourth feedbacks were intermediate between that of the first and that of fifth feedback. The difference between the amplitude of the P300 elicited by the first feedback and that by the fifth feedback was not significant, while the amplitudes of the P300 elicited by the other three feedbacks did not show significant difference. The amplitudes of the P300 elicited by the first feedback and by the fifth feedback are larger than those of the other three feedbacks. In summary, the results showed that the amplitudes of both FRN and P300 elicited by the second, third and fourth feedbacks, in which the financial gap between bet and feedback is small in relative magnitude, are not significantly different; the amplitudes elicited by the three feedbacks and those elicited by the first and fifth feedbacks, in which the financial gap between bet and feedback is large in relative magnitude, show significant difference.
    These results revealed that feedback-related ERPs reflect the processing of relative information based on a reference point, but the reference point was not the bet but the space where bet was. By reference to the space where bet was, the amplitude of FRN elicited by loss (i.e. the first feedback) was larger than that of gain (i.e. the fifth feedback) and the amplitude of FRN elicited by even (i.e. the other three feedbacks) was in the middle. According to the space of bet, the amplitude of P300 elicited by the larger feedback in relative magnitude is larger than that of the smaller feedback in relative magnitude, while the amplitude of P300 elicited by the equal feedback in the relative magnitude is not different significantly.
    Therefore, the feedback-related ERPs reflected the processing of the relative information based on the space of bet, showing effect of reference point, rather than the processing of the absolute information referring to point of zero
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    Characteristics of Emotion Schemas in High-alexithymics
    Gong Huo-Liang
    2008, 40 (12):  1250-1257. 
    Abstract ( 1896 )  
    Alexithymic patients suffer from severe deficits in cognitive processing and regulation of emotions. The purpose of present study was to explore the emotion schemas of high-alexithymics. Based on Bucci’s multiple code theory (1997), our hypothesis was compared with low-alexithymics, high-alexithymics had deficits in verbal emotion schemas, symbolic imagery and referential links that connected verbal and nonverbal schemas.
    The participants were 20 high-alexithymics and 20 low-alexithymics selected according to scores of TAS-20 (Toronto Alexithymia Scale). Emotion words and emotion pictures were used as experimental materials. Mixed designs were adopted. In experiment 1 and 2, participants needed to judge whether each word or picture presented through computer was positive or negative by pressing “F” for “positive” or “J” for “negative”. In experiment 3, participants needed to judge whether the valence of each picture-word match presented through computer was consistent or inconsistent by pressing “F” for “consistent” or “J” for “inconsistent”.
    Repeated-measure analysis of variance showed that Low-alexithymics were significantly faster on valence-judging emotion words than high-alexithymics. All of dimensions of alexithymia were positive correlated with mean response latencies for emotion words. But there was no significant difference between high-alexithymics and low-alexithymics on valence-judging emotion pictures. Finally high-alexithymics responded significantly slower on linkage between nonverbal and verbal schemas of emotion than low-alexithymics. Their subjectively-reported task difficulty was highly correlated with mean latencies for linkage response.
    To sum up, we demonstrated that high-alexithymics have deficits in emotion verbal schemas but not nonverbal schemas based on pictures. They also have severe deficiencies in referential links between nonverbal and verbal schemas of emotion
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    The Impacts of Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Emotion Regulation on Negative-Emotion-Induced Prospective Memory
    Lu Jiamei,Sun Juncai,Liu Wei
    2008, 40 (12):  1258-1265. 
    Abstract ( 1772 )  
    The cognitive ability to encode, store, and execute intended action is termed as prospective memory. As a high-level psychological function, prospective memory is influenced by attention control and emotional state. This study aims to elucidate the potential influences of induced negative emotion on the ability to carry out intended actions. We also plan to verify whether the prospective memory performance of the participants who have shared their negative emotion with their friends will be better than those who have ruminated on their negative emotion or distracted their attention from it. If so, we can validate our definition of interpersonal and intrapersonal emotion regulation and further explore their underlying mechanism.
    The double-task prospective memory test was conducted to probe into the above hypothesis. The test was programmed in VC++ and showed to participants on a computer screen. One hundred and sixty-nine students were randomly chosen from same year and department at one university and divided into five groups, including control group, no-regulating group, rumination-regulating group, distraction-regulating group and emotion-sharing group. The subjects’ emotional state was recorded before and after the experiment of watching aversive video clip. Four participants’ data were excluded due to poor performance at ongoing task and nineteen participants’ data were excluded due to failure of inducing negative emotion. Therefore, a total of one hundred and forty-six participants’ data were analyzed.
    The results showed that the performance of ongoing task and prospective memory were impaired by inducing negative emotion. The emotion-sharing groups’ performance of prospective memory was significantly better than that of rumination-regulating group, especially in the situation of high cognitive load.
    Based on current findings, we suggest researchers pay more attention to interpersonal interaction of emotional experience and evaluate emotional health problems in the interpersonal context. Moreover, researchers may explore the emotional meaning from the view of shared emotion and understand the mechanism of emotion regulation from a new, information-processing perspective
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    The Developmental Trend of Mutual Friendship and the Prospective Effect of Aggressive Behavior: a three-year longitudinal study
    ZHAO Dong-Mei,ZHOU Zong-Kui,SUN Xiao-Jun3,Yeh Hsueh,Robert Cohen
    2008, 40 (12):  1266-1274. 
    Abstract ( 1376 )  
    A great deal of research documents the importance of relationships such as mutual friends for a child’s development and the importance of negative behaviors such as aggression for a child’s maladjustment. However, previous research on peer relations, especially in China, has been limited in two crucial ways: (1) most of the studies have employed cross-sectional designs, which precludes directly examining developmental changes; and (2) few studies have analyzed for influences between friendships and aggression. The present research investigated developmental trends and individual differences for children’s mutual friendship and explored the longitudinal effects of aggressive behavior on children’s mutual friendships.
    Data were collected for 285 students from Grade 3 and Grade 4 in June of 2002, 2003 and 2004. Measures included (1) Friendship Nominations, from which we determined each child’s number of mutual friends with boys and with girls; and (2) peer nominations for overt aggression and relational aggression behaviors, using the Revised Class Play procedure.
    The present study employed Hierarchical Linear Model to analyze the longitudinal data. In terms of friendships, results indicated that, as expected, the number of mutual friends increased over time and children had more same sex mutual friends than opposite sex mutual friends. This same sex preference increased more for girls than for boys. For girls, having more mutual friends at the first assessment predicted a faster rate of accumulating mutual friends during the three years. After controlling for the effect of relational aggression, overt aggression had a significantly negative effect on the number of children’s mutual friends at each time of testing for girls but not for boys. After controlling for the effect of overt aggression, relational aggression had a significantly positive effect on children’s number of mutual friends for girls at each time of testing, but not for boys
    These findings confirm an increase of mutual friends over time as well indicate a strong gender segregation in children’s friendships. Also, aggressive behaviors were not necessarily associated with maladjustment, in that friendships were not negatively affected for children who exhibited gender normative aggressive behaviors
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    The Motivational Process Model of Adolescent Online Gamers’ Playing Intention
    ZHANG Hong-Xia,XIE Yi
    2008, 40 (12):  1275-1286. 
    Abstract ( 2289 )  
    Previous studies had identified various factors influencing adolescent online game playing behavior, such as the online game’s design, players’ psychological characteristics, and traits of the Internet as an emerging medium. However, the psychological mechanisms underlying adolescent online game playing behavior have not been fully comprehended. Based on a motivational process perspective, this study explores the main motivational determinants of adolescent online gamers’ playing intention as well as the relationships among intrinsic motivations of different levels.
    We collected data from six high schools in Beijing. A total of 468 questionnaires were collected, and 378 valid observations made up the final sample. All the measurement scales for key constructs were adopted or adapted from prior studies. Validity of the questionnaire was confirmed through the procedure of translation and back-translation as well as a pilot study. Structural equation modeling and maximum likelihood estimation were used to examine the proposed model.
    Exploratory factor analysis indicated five basic intrinsic motivations (i.e., benefits exchange, social interaction, beyond reality, self-efficacy and enjoyment/fun) and three extrinsic motivations (i.e., time limit, subjective norm, and involvement) underlying adolescent online gamers’ playing behaviors. Hypotheses testing results demonstrated that adolescent online gamers’ playing intention was influenced by a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Specifically, four basic intrinsic motivations (except the dimension of benefit exchange) stimulated flow motivation, which subsequently had positive effect on playing intention. Among extrinsic motivations, subjective norm could reduce playing intention, while player involvement towards playing online games had the opposite effect. We find that flow experience was driven by basic intrinsic motivations.
    Due to the significant effects of flow experience, involvement and subjective norm on playing intention, firms providing online game products/services should try to strengthen adolescents’ intrinsic motivations, especially the flow experience, in product promotion and marketing communication activities. In addition, it is also worthwhile to guide adolescents to play online games in line with social value/moral. That would also help to raise corporate image of high social responsibility
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    Schooling Grade or Chronological Age? Two Different Sources of Effect
    —Illustrated With Cross-Sectional Comparison of Adolescents’ Personality
    HUANG Fei,LI Yui-Hui,ZHANG Jian-Xin
    2008, 40 (12):  1287-1296. 
    Abstract ( 1831 )  
    The choice of time markers plays a key role in the research of psychological development. Developmental psychologists usually use the two important time markers, chronological age and schooling grade, to map the development of various psychological characteristics, when they trace one group of young children or compare different groups of young children. Chronological age is used to mark the time of psycho-physiological maturation and accumulated experiences acquired out of formal school. The schooling is used to indicate accumulated experiences of schooling. Researches and educational practices strongly suggest that these two markers would be the two different sources of variances of psychological development, and could be decomposed and studied by well-planned experimental design and appropriate statistical methods. In the present study, three personality traits (Neurotics, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness) of high school students are studied in terms of decomposition of chronological ages and schooling grades, in order to answer to some extent the classical and enduring debate on whether the bio-genetic or social cultural factors determinate personality development.
    The measures of the three personality traits come from the Chinese version of NEO-FFI. There were selected because there could be used to measure personality of Chinese high school students with satisfactory psychometric characteristics. In the present study, a valid sample of 998 students who were aged from 12 to 19, and recruited from all six grades of five high schools in Dalian city, made responses to the measuring items in a group manner. The preliminary statistical analysis showed that the three factors have high internal consistencies and high item and factor congruence coefficients, and thus made further comparisons across different ages and grades possible. The partial correlation method, multiple regression method, and same-grade-same-age method were adopted in order to decompose the grade and age effects from variance of personality measurement.
    The results of comparisons manifested that the age and grade effects can be indeed decomposed from each of the three personality traits for students at different age and different grade. There is a negative age effect on E factor and, particularly, a negative grade effect on C factor. These may suggest that E would be more related to genetic-biological factor, while C to environmental factors. The above results may indicate also that the methods of effect decomposition analysis can not only be applied to cognition development, but also to other psychological development such as personality as well. They could help psychologists to understand development more clearly by not confusing the age and grade effects in their studies
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    The Dimensionality and Measure of Empowering Leadership Behavior in the Chinese Organizations
    WANG Hui,WU Chao-Yan,ZHANG Yan,Chao C. CHEN
    2008, 40 (12):  1297-1305. 
    Abstract ( 2430 )  
    Empowering leadership refers to behaviors that enable and motivate subordinates to achieve high level of performance by creating a sense of psychological empowerment. Researchers have found that empowering practices such as delegating authority and incorporating employees into decision making serve as an important drive of effectiveness at individual, group, and organizational levels. Different dimensions of empowering leadership behaviors were identified, including leading by example, participative decision making, coaching, informing, and showing concern in the western literature. The purpose of the current research is to investigate the domain of empowering leadership behavior and develop an indigenous measure in the Chinese organizations.
    Three studies consisted of the research. In the first study, the critical behavior incidents of empowering leadership behavior were collected using open-ended questionnaire. 877 items were generated by 56 part-time MBA students. Nine categories were summarized based on a solid inductive method. In the second study, 201 part-time MBA students consisted of the sample and exploratory factor analysis was employed to identify the construct of the Chinese measure of empowering leadership behavior. In the third study, confirmatory factor analysis and regression model were used to test the validity of the measure with a sample of 420 employees from two companies.
    A Chinese measure of empowering leadership behavior with six dimensions, including support for individual development, process control, delegation of authority, outcome control, participation in decision-making, and coaching for work, was developed through the three studies. The measure had acceptable reliability and validity. In addition, the results showed that the empowering leadership behavior of the Chinese leaders had significantly positive effects on psychological empowerment, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of employees.
    The measure developed in the research provides a starting point for future studies on the Chinese empowering leadership behaviors. We call for more researchers who are interested in the leadership behavior to work together to investigate the topic. The relevant research will not only be helpful to understand the phenomenon of leadership in the Chinese context, but also provide practical implications for managers. In order to initiate a high level of intrinsic motivation of subordinates in the workplace, empowering behavior such as support for individual development and coaching for work are the critical practices of leaders
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    Cognitive Revolution and Second-Generation Cognitive Science
    LI Qi-Wei
    2008, 40 (12):  1306-1327. 
    Abstract ( 3197 )  
    Neither the traditional cognitive psychology with computation metaphor as core hypothesis nor the connectionist psychology can overcome the fundamental problem of so-called disembodied mind. Thus the contemporary cognitive psychology is in need of change for a new paradigm. The second-generation cognitive science highly features embodiment and situatedness. It will lead cognitive neuroscience into a new era and create potentials of eventually combining the scientism and humanism in psychology. It is based on the dynamic system model, which might result in the revolution of psychological methodology because the relationship among variables (factors) in this model is completely different from the interaction relationship among variables in the traditional analysis of variance.
    The emergence of the second-generation cognitive science will encourage people to reconsider some important issues, such as psychological ontology, mind-body relationship, physiological reductionism, consciousness research and the possibility of complete mind imitation by artificial intelligence.
    The author contends that with regard to the mind-body relationship, we should consider physiology as the necessary condition but not the substantial condition of psychology, avoid physiological reductionism and re-examine the theory of dualism-based physiological mechanism. The scientism and humanism in psychology tradition are likely to combine together on the basis of cognitive situatedness, which is emphasized by the second-generation cognitive science. Psychologists should put much emphasis on how mind process information. The first-generation cognitive science fails to conduct reliable studies on consciousness, because it confounds conscious with mind processing, such as perception, attention, memory and thinking. This tendency of replacing consciousness with psychology should be avoided. The dynamic system model used by the second-generation cognitive science is more likely to help us uncover the mystery of how the consciousness comes into being
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    Total Contents of Acta Psychologica Sinica in 2008
    2008, 40 (12):  1328-1337. 
    Abstract ( 1054 )  
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    Thanks to the reviewers of Acta Psychologica Sinica in 2008
    Editorial Office
    2008, 40 (12):  1338-1338. 
    Abstract ( 639 )  
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